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vim tips and tricks

searching

For basic searching:

/pattern       - search forward for pattern
?pattern       - search backward
n              - repeat forward search
N              - repeat backward

Some variables you might want to set:

:set ignorecase - case insensitive
:set smartcase  - use case if any caps used 
:set incsearch  - show match as search proceeds
:set hlsearch   - search highlighting

More cool searching tricks:

*               - search for word currently under cursor
g*              - search for partial word under cursor 
                  (repeat with n)
ctrl-o, ctrl-i  - go through jump locations
[I              - show lines with matching word under cursor

Search and replace...

:%s/search_for_this/replace_with_this/    - search whole file and replace
:%s/search_for_this/replace_with_this/c   - confirm each replace